An upper level low pressure system was moving slowly through Eastern Oklahoma into Western Arkansas during the afternoon hours of May 16th. A lone supercell thunderstorm across North Central Texas developed during the late morning hours of May 16th. This storm developed in a strongly sheared environment which allowed the storm to sustain itself. The storm moved south and east towards a strong instability axis which was oriented across Northeast Texas into Northwest Louisiana. With strong heating, strong instability developed and the supercell thunderstorm intensified as it moved south and east. The storm produced several tornado tracks, some of which occurred in Harrison County Texas and other into Southwest Caddo Parish and Northern Desoto Parish. The storm was a prolific hail and wind producer as well with wind gusts near 100 mph south of Shreveport, Louisiana with large fields of hail which turned numerous acres of land completely white.

Event Narrative

This tornado touched down just north of I-20 in Greenwood near the Old Kelly Truck Stop. It crossed I-20 near the Highway 80 intersection on the east side of Greenwood. The tornado uprooted and snapped trees as it moved southeast toward the old General Motors Plant. Several residential and mobile home communities had structural damage from fallen trees in the path. One injury occurred at the Blue Ridge Mobile Home Community near Buncome Road and Bert Kouns Industrial Loop. The tornado lifted about 0.4 miles southeast of the intersection of Bert Kouns and Buncombe Road.